Life in the real world much harder

Cambridge Times

As I start to read Judy Perkes’ article on teachers and Bill 115, my gag reflex starts to kick in just as our cat Roxy is walking by, stops and looks up as to say, “hairball?”

Teachers are protesting this attack on democracy. This must be a misprint. It should have read this attack on hypocrisy, for if there was ever a group that was more self-centred, self-righteous, and hypocritical it is the teachers’ union and their members.

Apparently the teachers’ union and their members do not see the economic times we are in and do not care. They do not see what is happening in Europe and that it could easily happen here if we let it. But every couple of years they hold the education system for ransom and use their students – that they say they are there to protect – as pawns to get what they want. Then again, teachers do not live in the real world.

They have never experienced being laid off and having to collect EI. They have never gone to work to find out that the company that they have worked at for years is closing. They have gone from high school to university, to teachers’ college and back into the classroom.

So to say that teachers are helping students to learn, to think critically, to solve problems and develop the skills to cope with an ever-changing world is a joke. How can they do that and teach that when they have never experienced what is happening in the real world since they have never left the classroom?

Our governments are elected by taxpayers. The school boards are elected by taxpayers and, yes, Ms. Perkes, you are paid by the taxpayer.

After all this, the teachers’ union and members think that they are the exception. Even now, the teachers’ union is telling its members how to grade their students’ report cards. So the teachers’ union is running the school system?

Sorry, no. We no longer think that you are the protectors of the education system or the victims, as in Anita Eades’s column recently in the Times, but are very much the problem. It is time for the taxpayer and student to take the education system back from the teachers union.

I have a few suggestions, of course.

Let’s start by eliminating paid and accumulated sick days. In the real world, if you are sick and miss a day, you don’t get paid. Eliminate eight weeks summer holidays. You’re not working so you should not be paid. No more taxpayer contribution to the teachers’ pension fund. There will never be enough money for this greedy union.

After-school activities – schools can hire coaches to do all that, so to free up all this time, teachers can teach.

Let’s take a lesson from the past shall we? When the air traffic controllers in the U.S. threatened to strike and close the country down, then president Ronald Reagan said fine, you’re all fired. I am sure the teachers’ colleges are still pumping out teachers that are now flipping burgers and pumping gas that would work for half of what you do and do a better job.

So please do not let the door hit you on the way out and welcome to the real world with the rest of us.

I hope you can cope. And please remember, intellect and arrogance will not take you far.